FOXGROVER RAISED NO EYEBROWS

Terry WilsonCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Matteson Police Cmdr. Kenneth O`Keefe said Friday that he suspected nothing when Judge Paul Foxgrover called and asked him to bring in $1,663 in cash that was evidence in a case pending before the judge.

''I thought I was complying with a lawful order of court,'' O`Keefe testified Friday during Foxgrover`s sentencing hearing. ''The last time I saw it, he had it in his hand.''

O`Keefe said he never saw the money again.

Foxgrover, a suspended judge in the Markham branch of Cook County Circuit Court, pleaded guilty this month to theft and forgery charges stemming from his endorsement of $27,000 in money orders and cashier`s checks that defendants paid as restitution and fines.

Du Page County Circuit Judge John Nelligan is hearing the case in Cook County to ensure impartiality. Testimony lasted all day Friday, and the defense is scheduled to present witnesses at another hearing set for July 2 before Nelligan imposes the sentence.

Foxgrover could receive up to 7 years in prison, officials said.

On Friday, several witnesses, including O`Keefe, testified that they believed at the time Foxgrover was acting within the law.

Prosecutors Kenneth Gillis and Gerald Nora have charged Foxgrover stole $36,000 in checks, but in court Friday, they said they suspected the amount exceeded $50,000. They said they will not bring further charges against him.

''We wanted to charge him quickly,'' Gillis said after the daylong hearing, explaining why they will not prosecute Foxgrover on allegations of additional thefts. ''We didn`t want to leave him on the bench. We think we`ve captured the picture of what he was doing.''

Gillis said Foxgrover spent $7,000 of the money to join the Ridge Country Club on the South Side and spent $2,500 on an underground sprinkler system for his home in Beverly.

Anthony Alvizu, an investigator for the Cook County State`s Attorney`s Office, said that Foxgrover`s bank accounts from January 1990 to July 1991 showed $53,000 in money orders had been deposited and that most had been paid by defendants who had appeared in court before him.

Prosecutors said that in those 19 months, Foxgrover withdrew $40,765 in cash and that no one knows what he did with it.